Ukraine should be an apprenticeship

The US military aid for Ukraine had to Keith Kellogg be stopped to move the Ukrainian leadership to the negotiating table. “The best thing to do is to describe it as if you were punching a mule on your nose with a spotted wood,” said Kellogg on Thursday (local time) at an event of the Council on Foreign Relations. “This is how you get your attention.”

Kellogg emphasized that it was a temporary stopover – not a final end to the support. In this context, he indicated that the decision may also have an impact on the allies of the United States. “I know that the Allies … also have paused everything that has to do with the US support,” he said. It was unclear whether he meant that the transfer of US secret service information was also restricted by other western states.

Ukrainian “have to attribute this to themselves”

With regard to the recent scandal in the White House, the special envoy, the Ukrainian president Wolodymyr Selenskij I completely misjudged the situation. “Of course they have to attribute this to themselves,” he said about the Ukrainians. It was a mistake, US President Donald Trump to want to convince publicly to position themselves clearly against Russia. The Republican was “very large -scale” and the escalation “completely avoidable”. However, the stop of the US aid is not a personal revenge of Trump, but a strategic step, emphasized Kellogg. It shows “a certain negotiating style”.

Trump had repeatedly claimed in the election campaign that the Ukraine war could end within 24 hours. Kellogg now said: “We did not say what day and in what year.” He emphasized that Selenskij must now sign the raw material deal. Kellogg replied to the note that he has already agreed to do so: “There is a difference between the offer to do it – and actually do it.”

Praise for Russia’s willingness to negotiate

When asked which pressure on Russia was exerted, Kellogg – like other government agents – did not want to give a clear answer. However, he admitted that there was still room to put Moscow under more pressure. At the same time, he indicated that there was already a basis for negotiations from the Russian side, while this was unclear at Ukraine.

Overall, the special envoy was benevolent about the willingness to negotiate the Kremlin. Between the US special envoy Steve Witkof and Russia’s President Wladimir Putin I had an almost three -hour conversation in Moscow and Trump talked to Putin, said Kellogg – while the Ukrainians had left the Oval Office empty.